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What many people miss about the payment process is that there are actually a series of steps - it’s not a one-stop shop! Merchants generally will run some amount of ...

Gift card authorization rates are estimated to be 5-10% lower than standard credit card authorization rates. While this can be frustrating for merchants and customer...

A card issuing platform enables businesses within and beyond the financial industry to easily provide branded debit and credit cards to their customers. Despite the ...

An issuer processor manages key payment transaction activities for issuing entities: issuing cards, authorizing and settling transactions, and acting as a system of ...

As magical as the payment process can seem when everything is going according to plan - your buyer simply types in their details, money is transferred, and you’re in...

We are thrilled to announce an enhancement to our tokenization platform: BIN Details! The BIN, or Bank Identification Number, allows access to details, a powerful to...

A risk assessment is a dedicated process evaluating the likelihood of a damaging event happening. In the medical environment, it is a statistical calculation of the ...

A one-time-use card, also known as a privacy card, is a virtual credit or debit card number that can be used once for a single purchase. Once this purchase is comple...

A credit card vaulting service is a third party that stores, protects, and provides access to stored cardholder data for merchants in the form of a secured vault. Us...

In the payments business, a chargeback is the reversal of a charge initiated by the issuing bank rather than the merchant, generally in response to a consumer compla...

Why does Payment Efficiency Matter? Processing payments is a multi-partner, multi-step endeavor, and each partner expects to be compensated for their trouble. From t...

Payment processing describes the series of steps that take place allowing one party to deliver money to another in return for goods and services, normally via a cred...

The annual Global Payments and Fraud report produced by the Merchant Risk Council, Cybersource, and Verifi surveyed 1,072 merchants who identified as being involved ...

Despite its name, the Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) defines not a discount offered to merchants, but a fee paid by the merchant to its payment processing service. On ...

Tokenization is a process by which sensitive data is exchanged for a unique, but completely different, identifier. The sensitive data can be securely stored, and the...

Payment Gateway Providers: An Overview A payment gateway is a specialized payment processor that serves the unique needs of a specific merchant vertical group. Payme...

What is a high-risk payment processor? Even though the payment process is mechanically consistent, the rules and regulations that govern who can do what are many and...

What are Merchant Category Codes? A Merchant Category Code (MCC) is a four-digit number used to categorize merchants based on the merchant’s business activities and ...

Uncovering the top resources to build your payment knowledge The payments industry and ecosystem can be daunting in its breadth and depth. Understanding not only the...

What is payments compliance? The pandemic years accelerated the growth of global e-commerce, catapulting the industry to over 26 million individual merchants doing b...

What is Payment Gateway Fraud? Payment gateway fraud occurs when a card-not-present transaction is completed using invalid card details. Fraudsters may use stolen cr...

Transferring money across borders seamlessly has opened up a realm of possibilities for businesses and individuals alike. However, many may find that cross-border pa...

In the fast-paced world of B2B software, prompt and efficient payment processing is on every vendor’s wish list. Getting paid in a timely fashion is essential for ma...

A payment service provider (PSP) is a necessary partner in the payments ecosystem, bridging the divide between the merchant, the card networks, and the buyer’s and s...

Payment reconciliation is the process of matching and verifying the payments made by customers with the corresponding invoices and receipts. This process ensures tha...

As the payments industry continues to evolve, staying on top of the latest trends is crucial for payments professionals looking to make informed decisions and drive ...

Electronic Benefits Transfer, or EBT, is a system that was created to allow recipients of federal support in the United States to make food purchases electronically....

Providing secure payment transactions is a shared responsibility, because so many entities are involved in an intricate chain of activities to complete a deal. Each ...

A payment aggregator is a service provider that shares their merchant account with their customers, allowing them to start accepting payments quickly and easily. Ins...

It’s easy to imagine the scariest risks of all: having your system taken over and sold back to you by ransomware, say, or a criminal ring intentionally buying all yo...

Whether you're a merchant looking to cut down on payment service fees, a startup aiming to provide solutions to an underserved region, or an online business battling...

What are Payment Analytics? Payment analytics are actionable trends organizations can identify and use to tune and accelerate their business growth. In today’s numbe...

A secure payment system is one that protects customer and merchant data both in motion (during an active transaction) and at rest (when stored). There are a variety ...

Smart Routing: A Pathway to Sustainable Success Payment processing historically has taken a fairly linear path: merchants, in a hurry to get to market, have signed u...

What is Payment Automation? When we think about payment automation, the temptation is to think only about inbound payment - revenue, in other words. And, indeed, mak...

In today’s evolving payment landscape, consumers have more payment options than ever before. As a merchant, it’s important to accept the forms of payment your custom...

Merchants have access to a wealth of data points to gauge the health and success of their business. From customer acquisition cost to profit margin, the array of ava...

Unlike a vendor at a physical market stall, who can exchange goods for physical cash, merchants transacting business online must deal with an array of third parties ...

The terms “payment gateway” and “payment processor” are, at times, used interchangeably in payment vernacular. And while the two are interrelated, each serves a uniq...

Merchants who build any kind of payment system must manage payments securely for a range of reasons.

Merchants often find themselves in the position of wanting, or needing to migrate to a new payment processor. This is normally either to take advantage of lower fees...

When a payment is ready to be processed, most merchants cannot simply send it to the card network - instead they must work with a Payment Service Provider (PSP). The...

A high-risk merchant is one considered by card networks and their designates (payment gateways, Payment Service Providers (PSPs) and so forth) to be less safe than t...

Recently, I had the pleasure of joining Caleb Avery, CEO of Tilled, on a webinar to discuss the current state of payments and data ownership. Tilled is one of our am...

A card network token is a string of random numbers that is used to retrieve the real Primary Account Number (PAN) from a token value, where it is securely stored to ...

Why test credit and debit card transactions? When you build a payment transaction system, it’s important to ensure that it is working properly.

Payment network tokenization is a process of replacing sensitive payment information, such as a credit card number, with a unique identifier or token that can be use...

At its core, payments optimization focuses on streamlining the way businesses accept, process and manage payments to improve customer experience and cut costs. It st...

Payment service providers (PSPs) play a critical role in ensuring smooth and secure payment processing for a variety of merchants but they can pose a significant ris...

Cascading payments can be part of an intelligent payment routing strategy. In this post, we break down the details and discuss how they can influence your success ra...